


Timelines

by zeroambi



Category: Quantum Leap
Genre: Bisexuality, Blow Jobs, Drama, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Identity Issues, Multi, POV Alternating, POV First Person, Romance, Temporal Paradox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:13:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeroambi/pseuds/zeroambi
Summary: Sam is back home (aka "fuck you very much Universal Studios") fanfic #238761.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> OMG it's over 9000! Over 11000 actually. So proud. I know 1st Person POV (let alone alternating) is considered a big writing on-no, but also somewhat of a fandom trope. And apparently I was shaped so much by the early QL fics that I read (almost one and a half decades ago) that it felt positively weird, when I started to write this in 3rd Person POV at first. Some stuff is a bit glossed over here, but I hope to write more in this universe at some point to fill in some blanks.

 

**Sam**

When I leaped into the waiting room it was dark and the floor was hard. I couldn't even explain how I knew it was the waiting room, I just did. Just as knew that I was, well, me. "Ziggy?" I asked automatically but there was no answer. Hell, for all I knew my computer was called something totally different now. I could only remember Ziggy though. And that miner's town with the strange bar that had been my only home lately. But for how long? I got up from the floor and moved into the direction I thought the door should be. It was sure it would be locked but it wasn't. Outside the waiting room there wasn't much more light either.

"Hello?" I tentatively called into the dark. "Verbena? Gushie?" I didn't even dare to call Al's name. I made my way to the control room and there was nothing there. Just great amounts of tarp and Ziggy, or what was left of her, wich wasn't all that much.

The Project was obviously abandoned. My heart sank. When I touched what looked like the remains of my 'baby' an alert started to blare. Well, at least there were still guards on the grounds, I thought, as I soon heard hasty steps coming towards me.

"Stop! Don't move or I will shoot!" I heard the commands as the door was opend behind me and flashlights pointed in my direction. "Hands up where I can see them."

"Oh boy," I said.

***

Miraculously enough they seemed to actually believe that I'm Dr. Samuel Beckett pretty fast. I guessed I bested all the tests they could run on that. They had me brought to a military base, probably Holloman's, and checked me out thoroughly, but there had not been a single familiar face in sight so far. Well, at least Project Quantum Leap had existed in this timeline in some fashion, so maybe there was still hope for that.

I was just resting my somewhat aching head in my hands, when I heard soft voice call my name: "Sam?"

"Beena?" I looked up and there she was. "Oh thank God." I got up to hug her, which was a bit hard with those stupid handcuffs I was still wearing, but I could _touch her_. Verbena signaled one of the miltary police guards to remove the cuffs. "They're poking and prodding me, but won't tell me anything,"I complained meanwhile. "What's the date?"

"It's April 13th 2004," she said her voice sounding a bit unsteady.

So not as far from my last leap with the Project than I had feared. Beena didn't look much older than I remembered her either. Still over four years though.

"We thought you were dead." There were tears welling up in here eyes now. "Where were you, or rather when?" she asked.

"I don't know." That wasn't entirely the truth, but the last thing I wanted to talk about now was leaping. "What happened?" I asked. "Where is everybody?" I was afraid what the answers would be.

She tried to regain her composure and pointed to the chair. I sat down again and she took the one opposite the table. "After your last leap with the Project a good four years ago Ziggy had a total breakdown. Gushie tried anything possible and some rather impossible things, but she could not be restarted.

"Al?" I asked almost sure I would get a blank look in return.

"He was not of much help at that time," she said instead to my delight, but then added: "He had a psychotic break, Sam, and was in inpatient treatment for a while."

I caught my breath. "Swiss cheese?"

"Worse than Swiss cheese. More like split personality." Verbena gave me a scolding look now. "He never really told me in our sessions how much you fucked around with the timeline in neither of them. That was not supposed to happen, Sam. You were not supposed to change time to that degree!"

I nodded and avoided her eyes. She was right. It was one thing to mess with what were rather insignificant wrongs in history, well, except for those people I leaped into, and with stuff from your own life. Speaking of changing things in that regard. "Donna?" I asked.

She closed her eyes and it was clear she struggled with what to tell me, but then decided for brief and to the point.

"She had declared you dead and married again last year."

I felt a hysterical laughter coming on.

"You think that's funny?" Verbena seemed alert.

"It's hilarious," I said without thinking. All right, it probably wasn't as funny in this timeline if Beth had really waited for Al. It all came back to Al. "I mean, lets face it, that marriage was over when I stepped back into the accalerator to save Al," I tried to make sense again. "That did happen in this timeline too, right?"

Verbena nodded. "She still gave birth to your son."

"What!?" I gaped at her. That could not be. I remembered the night we had spent together in September 1999, I thought, but: "She is ... was fourty-six!"

"And no longer on birth control. It happens," Verbena shrugged.

Automatically I was calculating how improbable such a conception would be, but stranger things had happend indeed. "She never wanted kids," I remembered. Except that was from a newer timeline. So yeah, I got them all mixed up in my head now. Her wish to stay childfree had actually been a contentious point between us, when we had started to date. But then we were both very career focused people and Ziggy was our baby so: "Why didn't she ... ?"

"Abort?" Verbena finished the thought for me. "I don't know. You'll have to ask her that yourself. She is living in Houston now."

"Captain Calavicci! I really don't think you can just ..." sounded an angry voice from the door. Al, I thought, my heart beating faster, but it was a young woman in her mid twenties that showed up in the door. She looked very much like Al though, the uniform only reinforcing that impression. My brain came up with a memory of a teenager that dreamed of flying. "Ellen?" I said. Holloman's base. She was Air Force. I had to chuckle as I imagined Al's reaction to _that._

"Uncle Sam?" She stared at me. "Holy shit, it's really you. Dad is going to flip."

 _Uncle Sam._ I guess I did it. I changed the timeline so Beth stayed with Al. But then why was my memory still mostly of the old one?

 

**Al**

"Oh, what the hell?" I yelled at the tv, throwing popcorn at the screen. That was the third pitch that dumbass fumbled.

The phone rang, but I didn't feel like getting up now and let the machine answer. Not many people new my unlisted number anyway and I didn' feel like talking to any of them either. It was Tina. _"Al ... hi. Um, I talked with Gushie and I think he wants to give it another try with me ..."_

"Again?" I asked loudly.

 _"... so we shouldn't see each other anymore. Don't ... don't be mad, okay?"_ *peep*

Breaking up over the answering machine, seriously? "Well, it looks like it's just me and you again, baby." I said seductively to my left hand licking the pocorn salt of my finger. I thought that Beena would scold me now for trying to hide being hurt with dumb humor. I wasn't mad though. I mean, I'm almost old enough to be her grandfather, but not being able to decide between me and _Gushie_ of all people? That did sting a little. The whole on and off thing with Tina since me and Beth had seperated three years ago, was weird enough as it was. I couldn't even tell if it was influenced by the original timeline I still remembered, but probably so.

As I was trying to focus back on the game, the phone rang again. No, you can't get me of the couch, you annoying low-tech piece of communication, no chance, I thought, glaring at it. _"Dad? Hi, it's Alex. I just wanted to warn you, Mom is planning something really big for your birthday already._

I groaned. Now that's the problem with an amicable divorce, I thought. Not that I had had much experience with that until this timeline. Maybe Ruthie, but nah, not really.

_"Something with the Projects' People and NASA and Navy, you know the drill. Samantha and Danny are coming over from Germany with the babies too."_

The thought of seeing the twins again was great, but otherwise I really didn't want to be reminded of the big looming 7-0. There was some toddler babble to be heard in the backround now.

_"No, Julie, you're supposed to draw with the crayons not eat them ... yes, I'm talking to Grandpa ... I shall tell you hello from Julie."_

I hope she eats the gold, silver and purple ones first, I thought smiling. Now I was tempted to get the phone after all, my oldest grandchild being an adorable little tyke.

 _"Oh and thank you for the birthday roller skates and stuff. You shouldn't have, it's to expensive. Julie? What are you doing...? Sorry, see ya, Dad."_ *peep*

Adorable, but also quite a handful. I had just decided to get me a beer from the fridge, when the phone rang for the third time in less than ten minutes. "For gods sake, can't a man watch a baseball game in peace here!?" I grumbled.

_"Admiral Calavicci, Captain Sellers here. A man has been apprehended at Stallions Gate inside Project Quantum Leap a few hours ago. A man that claims to be Dr. Samuel Beckett, he definitely looks like Dr. Beckett. We have already called Dr. Beeks and he was brought here to Holloman's Base ..."_

I caught my breath and I think my heart also missed a few beats. I didn't hear what else he said. I also might have let out a rather funny sound, something between a cry and a whimper. I stood up, the popcorn landing all over the floor. "Oh my God, please ..." I prayed. If this was some dumb joke, I was going to lose it. And if it wasn't, I was going to lose it too.

***

When I reached the base it had started to rain. There had been a few thunderstorms lately because of some tropical depression and it was getting rather ridiculous for New Mexico. I felt a bit weak in the knees when I got out of my car and hurried inside the main building. Thankfully the guards pretty much ignored me, except for the standard salute.

I didn't even know where to go, when I heard a familiar voice from behind me in the hall. "Dad!"

"Ellen?" I turned around surprised to see her here. "I thought you were in DC."

"Nah, we're doing test-flights this week. Well, If this bullshit weather allows it. Peter called me." She took my right hand into hers. "It's really him, Dad," she said delicately, probably afraid of her old man falling apart once more.

"You saw him?" I asked, still not sure if I could believe it.

"Yeah, I sneaked in after they had done the medicals and he was talking with Dr. Beeks," she said. "They are on the first floor, conference room number 5. She is still with him."

"Is he ..?" I started.

"He looks fine, Dad. A bit exhausted maybe. He even seemed to recognize me."

"He did?" Now that was interesting.

Ellen shrugged. "Well, at least he called me by my name and he asked for you."

So there is _some_ remembrance of this timeline. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as I feared.

"Everything okay, Dad?" Ellen asked, still holding my hand and looking concerned. I hadn't noticed, but I was shaking a little. "Yeah. It's just ... unexpected," I said.

"Um. I called Mom. Hope that's all right?" she asked sheepishly.

It would have to be I thought and nodded. "Thank you, Baby." I knew she would have protested that endearment fiercly at any other time, but she let it go under these circumstances.

"Shall I accompany you or ..."

"No, I think I can do on my own," I assured her and continued my way to the stairs.

***

"Al!" Sam was beaming at me like a Christmas tree when he saw me and jumped up from his chair. It was him alright.

"Sam," I said lightly, automatically reaching out to him.

"Al. Oh my God ..." He met me halfway and hugged me like ... we hadn't touched in almost a decade. I felt weak in the knees again, but I could hold the tears that threatened to spill in for now. Sam was sighing and squeezing me tight again and again like he was afraid I would vanish out of his arms. "Let an old man breath here, Sammy," I said. He eased out of our embrace a litte at that and started to weep. I kissed him on the left cheek.

"Hey," I nudged his chin and took a closer look at him. He did look fine. Older of course, but there was something different about his eyes. Less innocent? Well, we were actually both different people now depending on which timeline you take as springboard, I thought. Hah. Springboard.

As Sam tried to regain his composure, and while I was still holding it surprisingly together, it was Verbena of all people that started to bawl for real now.

"Excuse me," she said and fled the out the door.

"She is mad with me," Sam said, looking after her concerned.

He looked just as I remembered him now. Like a sad puppy not sure what he had done wrong, but very sorry about it anyway.

"She's probably just in shock," I tried to reassure him. "It has been four years since the last contact, Sam. We thought you were gone for good."

 "I didn't think I would see you again. Even if I got home, I mean ..." he said perplexedly.

"Yeah, what the hell was _that_ , kid?"

He blushed. "You always wanted it so bad ... Something was obviously going wrong during the later leaps. The bar seemed like a weird culmination of it. If I was to leap on my own now, I thought I could give you that much and it worked," he smiled. "Captain Calavicci ... Ellen, she looks just like you."

"It worked all right." Still you probably shouldn't have, I thought. Because be careful what you wish for and all that.

"Beth?" he asked.

"Will probably be here shortly," I said. "What do you remember of this timeline?"

"Only bits, I think. It's different from when I was home in September 1999. Then the memories came back like a flash. This time it's more fractured." Sam frowned like he did when thinking hard about something. "There are three others. Janis, Alexa, no Alexis and ... what's the name of the third one?"

Samantha. But if he couldn't recall that yet, it was probably for a reason. "Now slow down, Sam," I said instead. "We don't want you to lose it like I did after the timeline change."

"Verbena said something about that. I'm sorry, Al, I didn't known this would be so dangerous."

Except in this timeline you kinda did, I thought. I did not know what exactly Verbena had already told him, but it became clear that my presence and especially physical contact made his swiss-cheesed brain work in overdrive, when he started to hyperventilate and let go of my hand like it was a hot potato.

"Sam breathe!" I ordered an sat him back down on his chair. When he had calmed down a bit he touched my hand again and blinked at me. "We still met at Starbright, right?"

"Yes." I answered reluctantly, as this wasn't much better than going through the girls names timeline-memory wise.

"Tom?"

That his next memories were of his brother made sense, I guessed, because Tom had been very much involved in the financial parts of the Projects and ... should be here. I really did not know how to tell him _that_.

"Nine-eleven." He said out of nowhere.

Then maybe I wouldn't have to. "How do you know about that?" I asked baffled.

"I saw it during a leap," he explained. "The Pentagon burning and the towers coming down, I mean. The latter was on tv, I think."

Now this was peculiar, because that would mean he had leaped into the future. The future from his point of view at least. Or was it? It was 2004 now after all. "Tom was at the Pentagon that day, but he didn't die then," I told him. "He was killed last year in Iraq, Sam."

"Oh."

Right then the door opened and Beth stood there, putting a hand over her mouth after having made a sound very similar to the one I had made earlier this evening.

"Beth." Sam sounded delighted.

"Sam," she whispered, tears running down her cheeks.

He got up and pulled her into a bear hug just like he had me before, and of course things went a bit ca-ca after that.

It was kinda painful to watch his face go from content to confused to scared. Slowly he let go of her. He looked at her in disbelieve, then to me in terror, then back to her and then fled the room just as Beena had before.

I hunkered down if only not to topple over with glee. "Uh-oh, that came back fast." I said, rolling my tongue in my mouth. "Always said you really did a number on the poor kid." I looked up at her coyly from under my eyelashes.

"That's not funny, Al," she complained.

But it was. God-Time-Fate-Whatever had a very special kind of humor. There the kid goes all out to give me my hearts desire in one timeline only to become the guy she cheats on me with during her midlife crisis in the new one. At least she looked just as guilty about it as she had twenty-four years ago.

"Al ..." She called for me and was crying for real now.

Okay, maybe it wasn't _that_ funny. I got back up and realized that squatting for shits and giggles was maybe not all that advisable at my age anymore. "I know ..." I said and put my arms around her. We held each other like that for a while, being both shaken and relieved at once to have our time traveling idiot back. I then kissed her on the forehead and said: "I ... I'll just make sure he doesn't jump out of a window, okay?"

 

**Sam**

_The woman at the bar, who had all but stared at me the whole evening, was coming over after I had finished my last piece._

_"You play very good, she said and leaned onto the piano revealing a very nice cleavage."_

_"Thank you, mam," I said politely and hoped I didn't blush to hard._

_"Mam? Do I look that old?" She asked whimsically._

_"No! You're very pretty." Oh my God, you're so smooth, Beckett, I thought. She was probably a good deal older than me, but by no means old. She really had caught my eye too. Maybe I had even tried to impress her a little with my play._

_"Good to hear it," she laughed. "I'm Beth," she added, "and you're ..."_

_"Sam."_

_"Sam?" She looked surprised. "Now that's funny. You remind me of someone, you know. His name was also Sam."_

_Really? I thought. Well, at least we can be 'not so smooth' together ..._

***

_She tasted of the wine and smoke of the bar and had me strangely excited._

_"I don't usually do this, you know?" I said, when we catched some breath between our kisses. "Taking somebody to a room for a night, I mean."_

_"I don't usually do this either," she replied, "but there is a first time for everything ..."_

 ***

 _No. No. No._ I absolutely refused to believe what my memory of this timeline was trying to tell me. I splashed my face with some cold water from the sink, but the images wouldn't go away. I looked up and into my face in the mirror above the sink. Damn I had gotten old. It hadn't looked that old to me in the bar's mirror for some reason.

"Calm down, Sam. It's all right," Al had sneaked up behind me into the bathroom like he was still a fucking hologramm. Which he wasn't. Because I could see him in the mirror too and could hardly deal with the feelings that provoked let alone ...

"All right?" I asked in disbelief and turned around. "In what god damn ..."

"timeline ..." Al cut in helpfully.

... is that all right?"

Al leaned against the wall besides the sink and shrugged. "You always liked them older."

Was he really smirking? "That's not funny, Al," and just as I said this a great thunder was to be heard from outside.

"No it's not!" I yelled at the ceiling.

***

_"What has that poor vending machine done to you, Sir?" I asked amused. Maybe it wasn't wise to confront what seemed to be a maniac with a hammer, but I was going to take the chance anyway._

_He didn't look dangerous. Just tired and annoyed and maybe a bit intoxicated. As he looked up to me he was also obviously self-aware of how ridiculous the situation was._

_"Look I had a really bad month, kid," he said putting the hammer down. "The brass is doing everything to oust me from this Project, my wife of almost twenty years has cheated on me and now this stupid piece of metal trash ..." he held up the hammer against the machine menacingly once more, but then let it sink down again with a sigh: "... is trying to cheat me out of my money and booze too."_

_"Sorry to hear that, Sir," I said softly. "What you say, we go to the cantina and I buy you a coffee there."_

_"Coffee?" He eyed me. "You new here?"  
_

_"Yes," I confirmed, "I'm Dr. Sam Beckett," and offered my hand._

_"Albert Calavicci, but you can call me Al," he took it to shake._

_I let go hastily though, as I was taken aback by his name. "Calavicci?" I asked. "Are you related to a Beth Calavicci?"_

_"That's my wife, why you know her?"_

***

"You didn't even punch me in the face. Why didn't you punch me in the face? I totally would have punched me in the face."

"Because it was pretty damn obvious that she hadn't told you she was married," Al said. "If I recall right you even stuttered 'but she didn't tell me she was married', which was kinda adorable. And you turned a shade of pale I had never seen before ... until now that is," he pointed at me: "You're not going to puke, are you?"

He, seemed so amused by all this, I kinda wanted to punch _him_ now. _I wanted to kiss him._ _God_ ** _._ ** As more and more memories of this timeline bombarded me, I slowly slid down the wall to the floor. "I mucked up. I mucked everything up, didn't I?" I whined burrying my head between my knees.

"I told you take it slow, Sam." Al sat down beside me. "It was just a stupid one-night stand, and later you met Donna and everything was fine."

"Since when do I do one-night stands?" I asked him looking up in astonishment. "And Donna ... nothing is fine. Verbena said she has a son. Our son. And she's is married to someone else now."

Al made a face. "Right. Jordan. Sweet little boy. He is a bit younger than Julie. Your son I mean, not her new husband."

"Julie?" I asked.

"Alexis' daughter," he explained.

_Al has a grandchild._

"Three," Al said holding up three fingers. I hadn't noticed that I had said it out loud.

"Yeah, I know," he patted me on the shoulder, "being thrown into this fatherhood thing is quite the trip and I don't know what you and Donna can work out custody wise, but there is still Sammy-Jo ..."

"Sammy-Jo?" My _adult_ timetravel daughter. I was still not sure how that could have ever happened. "She knows?"

"Yes," Al nodded. "We decided to tell her when the Project was closed."

Something hit me in the brain like a brick. "Oh my god, Samantha, her name is Samantha?" I sounded pretty hysterical now, because you have got to be fucking kidding me ...

"And she is mine," Al assured me and put his arm around me. "We checked, as you'll remember."

I had a vague memory of me in the hospital with Al and feeling like two tons of weight beeing taken of my shoulders. Who the hell names their daughter after the guy who almost ruined their marriage? _Ruined their ... wow ..._

Now I had reached the point, where I really just wanted to curl up and cry. And I proceded to do so. In Al's lap. Which was much more comfortable than the tile floor.

"Oh, Sam ..." he said and squeezed me while ruffling my hair. "Now hush, it's going to be alright. You're doing fine. Much better than I did in any case."

That might be so, but I sure didn't feel like it. I let the tears flow freely now and clinged to him like a lifeline. The line to my life he had always been during the leaps except for the last four years. It felt so good to be in his arms and comforted like this. Never mind that crazy fling with Beth. There were so many unresolved feelings between _us_ in almost any timeline. I looked up at him and his encouraging smile and he kissed me on the forehead. I was very tempted to just pull his mouth down onto mine when ... something started to vibrate in Al's pants?

"Damn." He let go of me and took his cell phone out. "Tina." He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I got your message. No, no, I'm not mad at all ... you know, it's really not the best time right now ... yeah, I'm busy ... alright, say hello to Gushie from me." He hung up, the last part having sounded a tiny little bit passive agressive maybe. "I think it's probably better to wait a little to give them the news," he told, pointing at me.

 _Some things never change._ "You're dating Tina?" I asked, wiping the tears from my face.

"As of two hours ago, no, but give her another hour with Gushie, you never know with her," he shrugged.

"So you and Beth ..."

"Ah, no," Al looked like it just occured to him that this would be news to me, "we're not married anymore."

"Well, and so much for that." I sighed.

"Hey, almost forty years isn't a bad run, Sammy," Al objected. "Through good and bad times too." He got up from the floor and offered me a hand. "Now get up kid. I'm afraid you'll have to sleep on base for a few days, but I'll see if I can get you an apartment in Alamogordo."

 

**Al**

It went pretty smooth all things considered. The getting an apartment for Sam that is. He was very awkward around Beth. Which was just like a throwback to the early eighties of this timeline. We called his sister and mother in Hawaii who were over the moon to hear he's alive.

Katie couldn't stop crying when she heard her brother's voice and Thelma, who lived in a senior living community near her daughter, was shocked and delighted to have one of her sons back. Sam promised to visit them as soon as possible.

The call with Donna didn't go so well. Sam wouldn't tell me all of what went down with that, but it had obviously been not very pleasant. I never quite understood what he saw in her, except a pretty face and a smart mind, which was rather hypocritical since, well, that was exactly what attracted me to Beth ... and Sam. But then Donna leaving Sam at the altar after four years of engagement in the original timeline might have something to do with my contempt, because what kind of soap opera move is that? Unfair, I thought, because that had _never happend now_ , but it was still in my brain. Even in this timeline the simo-leap at the latest had made my contempt mutual though.

Although it would probably be hard for Sam to establish a relationship with his little son under these circumstances, at least Sammy-Jo was very curious about her 'secret' father and provided a bit of a distraction from that. They bonded talking over Project Quantum Leap in an IQ over 190 language I couldn't quite decipher. The Project was dead though and I could tell it ate at Sam, as much as he tried to downplay what that meant to him.

I wasn't particularly bothered of that chapter being closed if I was honest. Yes, we had done many good things during the leaps, but it had proven to be always very dangerous. Too dangerous.

Thanks to Sam's little excursion to Beth in 1969 we had known this time around, that time traveling as postulated by Dr. Sam Beckett would work eventually. I hadn't been too mad with him when he prematurely went into the accalerator in the original timeline, because the money was getting thin and the Project was threatened to be closed before even taking off. I was much more pissed off this time, when he pulled the same shit again and money, thanks to Tom's support, wasn't a problem at all. Sam was just getting impatient and the retrival program still or rather again didn't work.

Verbena was still mad at him about that too, maybe even moreso on Donna's behalf. Those two had always been good friends. Curiously she was also mad on my behalf or something, which was really unneccessary. But I had said a few thing about my feelings for Sam during our sessions and especially during my break down in 2000 that ... Tina had been a nice distraction and reassurance in that regard.

"You know there is a thing called bisexuality Al," Verbenea had said. Sure was. But nobody wanted to hear about it. Me neither. Who the hell comes out at almost seventy? As whatever. "You would be surprised, Al," I could hear her say.

Having Sam back had not made those feelings miraculously disappear. Quite to the contrary. Being around him 24/7 again didn't really help with that either.

More shocking and surprising to me was, that he seemed to feel the same way. First there was that only between us shared memory of a timeline long gone, then that we seemed to be unable to stop touching each other now that it was possible again, and then there was the kiss that happened, when I helped him with moving his unwieldy couch to the other side of the room and landed on the floor twice, because the damn thing wouldn't give. We laughed, he helped me up and ... that wasn't a friends kiss.

"I'm sorry Al , I ..." Sam stuttered. I must have looked pretty scared, though feeling more excited than anything else. While he tried to back-pedal, I thought that we should talk about this like adults. So I did the mature thing and fled. Maybe I needed to give him a bit more room to breath. Finding his own way around this new world. Or I was just a gigantic chicken.

 

***

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Sam **

"Everything alright?" Sammy-Jo asked me, shortly looking up from the road.

I was grateful for her offering me a ride home from the base were I was still meeting weekly with Beena. _Home._ How I had longed for it over the years and what a joke it now was. The last two month had been insane and I really didn't feel like mincing words right now.

"Sure," I said, my tone indicating anything but that. "My life's work is in the trash-bin of history, Beth and the girls look at me like I'm an alien or very uncommon bug, my wife - pardon ex-wife - has my calls blocked, my shrink has murder in her eyes in every session, and even Al now avoids me if at all possible."

"As for you ..." I looked at the woman besides me with angiush, "I probably don't want to know what you _really_ think of me."

Sammy-Jo snorted. "Well, not that I haven't tried, but it's a bit hard to be angry at existing. Same goes for the Calavicci girls, I would guess."

"You should probably switch to another psychatrist from Dr. Beeks though," she suggested. "She is a bit too deeply involved in all this at this point to be still objective, I think."

"Yeah, Verbena has told me that she is compromised herself. But to whom else could I even start to confide about this utter mess I've created?" I need to talk to Al, I thought. But Al would barely speak to me since the kiss, pretending it never happened. Nobody wanted to speak to me anymore.

Sammy-Jo also didn't seem to have an answer for my question and changed the topic.

"Anything planned for the Admirals birthday party?"

"Huh?"

"He'll turn seventy next Tuesday, don't tell me you've forgotten."

I had in fact forgotten, which made me feel like shit again and seventy? Really? Where had time gone?

"There is a big party planned for Saturday at the base. Everybody will be there from Project Quantum Leap and the whole family of course. Alexis and Samantha will bring the kids." Sammy-Jo explained.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, to think about Al as grandfather is still a bit much for me," I shook my head.

"Yeah? How would you feel about becoming a grandfather yourself?" Sammy-Jo asked me with a sly grin.

""What?!" I stared at her in shock, as it became clear that she was serious. "How?!"

"Well, you see Dr. Beckett, when a boy and a girl like each other very much ..." she started delicately.

"Hahaha," I had kinda asked for that, though.

Sammy-Jo shrugged. "Wasn't exactly planned, but I'm thirty-seven. It's now or never."

"Although Michael isn't taking it very well, so far," she added, making a face.

"Shall I talk to him?" I asked sternly.

"Yeah. No." Sammy-Jo laughed. "That would be bit awkward. The long lost Dr. Beckett from work defending my honor, don't you think?"

She was right of course, but I couldn't help but feel concern and responsibility.

"I know it's weird, I mean the last thing I ever wanted to be is a single mom, but if he doesn't come around I really don't care," she mused, making me feel guilty again.

"When?" I asked after a while.

"Late November," she said.

For the rest of the ride we stayed quite, as I tried to let that information sink in. I was going to be 'Grandpa Sam'. Oh boy.

 

**Al **

I couldn't decide what to wear. _Gay._ Oh, shut up brain. There was the silver metallic suit and the red shirt. Maybe a bit retro. Well, _I_ was a bit retro these days. The floral print jacket, the bright orange ensemble ... I was definitely not going to wear uniform, I was as good as retired. In the end I decided for the deep purple shirt and black slacks. No tie and just a silver belt with a big rhinestone buckle. It was a bit demure for my usual style. I hung the matching black jacket over my shoulder and went on my way.

When I arrived at my birthday party it had started to thunder once again. _Really_ ridiculous weather, thank you golbal warming, I thought. The party room was already pretty full with people. I saw Verbena and Sammy-Jo in one corner and some folks from Starbright in the other. There would be no Tina or Gushie, because of their spontaneous wedding and honeymoon in Vegas. Well, good luck with that I had thought when reading their card, my experience with Vegas weddings not being the best, or actually, you know, existen in this timeline.

It was of course Beth that greeted me first, with a tight sqeeze and gushing congratulations. She then handed me a bottle of my favorite Scotch as present. My girls followed in quick succession. Alexis let Julie pass over the birthday package with a self-drawn picture. Hadn't eaten all the cryons after all it seemed. Ellen handed me a bigger package and I could guess, that it was probably that fighter jet assembly kit we had talked about. Samantha's twins were nine month old now and to cute for words. It was good to see her and her young family again.

"Happy Birthday, Dad." Janis congratulated last.

"What's with the hair?" I pointed at the colorful spikes.

"You like it?" she asked cheekily.

No I didn't. Which granted was probably a bit hypocritical. Still, while Ellen physically looked like a clone of me, my youngest was the closest to me in character. My _other_ character that is, mostly. It was rather disconcerting. I was about to air my grievance, when I saw Sam enter the party room. He was wearing a shirt with grey vertical stripes, black dress jeans and a white jacket and ... silver loafers?

"Hello, Al," he greeted me and reacted to my appraising look: "Yeah, it's a bit flashy for me, no?" He looked down at himself.

"You look fine, Sammy. Thanks for coming."

"You don't look so bad either old man," he said. "Happy birthday." He awkwardly put an arm round me. It's okay Sam, you can hug me, I'm not going to freak, I thought. I'm probably just going to get a boner. _Damn._

"Now wanna see something really flashy?" He showed me the litte wraped package, he had hid behind his back.

I took it and unceremoniously ripped into it. It was a replica of Ziggy's handheld.

"The design looks totally ridiculous now, doesn't it?" Sam said with a grin on his face.

"Well, it was my idea, so obviously," I pointed out, stroking its outline. "Thank you, Sam. I'm so damn glad you're back."

 

**Sam **

I was glad to be back too. Really was. I got over to greet Sammy-Jo, who was talking to Verbena. Verbena was right. I had been a bit of a drama queen the last month. Yeah, some stuff was pretty awkward with the 'new' timeline, but nobody hated me or wished I hadn't come back. Not even Donna. She had just moved on with her life and I needed to accept that. Might have done me a favor with it even.

Some Starbright and Quantum Leap people greeted me, and thanked me for my work on the Projects. Some of which I recognized, while others not so much. The party was buzzing along and I headed for the gigantic buffet. Janis and some of her friends were doing band duty and nicely so. Well, at least if you're into the retro disco stuff. Which Al, was. Majorly. He cut up a mean floor.

I danced with Beth, when they finally played something you could actually dance to. That didn't last long though and they had started to play Nena's 99 Red Balloons now. Yes, the English version. _Ugh._ I was very tempted to just loudly sing the original text over it.

Samantha's husband Daniel had been pleasantly surprised, when I talked in German to him. He also was not shy to correct me, German indeed.

At one point Al, who was looking to be really enjoying himself now, handed me a glass of champange and nodded in Sammy-Jo's direction. "Is she really drinking sparkling _water_?" he rolled his eyes. "She's your daughter all right."

"She's pregnant, Al," I revealed to him.

"She is ..." Al gaped and toppled over with laughter. "Well, hello Grandpa!" I very maturely stuck my tongue out at him for that. Still, grandpa jokes were probably better than time travel jokes, of which I had heard a few today already too.

While not everybody had high enough clearance, all here knew vaguely what Quantum Leap had been about. Very vaguely, mind. Mostly something about time travel theory and that it didn't work out as hoped in the end. The official narrative for my disapearance would probably be that I went into hiding for being so embarrassed about it not working. Wouldn't quite explain why my wife had me declared dead in the end but oh well. Speaking of time travel jokes ...

"And now in honor of Dr. Time Travel and Admiral Sidekick ..." Janis announced, after the applause for their last song had subsided.

"Sidekick?" Al complained loudly. "Careful, girl."

"... Johnny B. Goode." Janis leaned down from the stage and offered me the microphone. "You wanna sing it Uncle Sam?"

"Absolutely not," I refused. "Maybe you can call Michael J. Fox to sing it for you ..." From the all around awkward looks that got me, I guessed that 'Dr. Time Travel' had said something rather stupid again. "Oh my god, Al, he's dead isn't he?" I hissed embarrassed.

"Not dead," Al shook his head, "but he got a serious case of Parkinson Desease since the early 90s. Only went public with it in 1998 though."

"Jeez, Al, he is almost ten years younger than me," I said. It was never easy to be reminded of the fragility of health and your own mortality. Thankfully Janis and the band had gone into full rock out mode by now and glossed over my faux pas. When they later took a break, I ended up at the guitar and microphone anyways and played a few Beatles songs. Anything to stop the disco insanity.

When a young couple, from NASA I think, wished for something by the Everly Brothers I had to smile, thinking of that leap where Al and I had sung to each other.

 _I bless the day I found you_  
_I want to stay around you_  
_And so I beg you, let it be me_

Like during that leap Al joined in. I could see Beth smiling at us from afar.

 _Don't take this heaven from one_  
_If_ _you must cling to someone_  
_Now and forever, let it be me_

Had I ever clung to Al during my first four years lost in time.

 _Each time we meet, love_  
_I find complete love_  
_Without your sweet love_  
_what would life be?_

My eyes were holding Al's intensely now, and he wasn't avoiding them either. Quite to the contrary.

 _So never leave me lonely_  
_Tell me you love me only_  
_And that you'll always let it be me_

The other people in the room had kinda ceased to exist, except when my eyes briefly catched Beth again, I saw that her face had turned to stone. She was pale as a ghost and turned to hastily leave the room. _Shit_ , I thought, and put the guitar down to go after her.

 

**Al **

"Beth, wait ..." Sam had dropped the guitar and went after Beth. He looked rather alarmed.

I wasn't sure what had just happened. I mean, it was just two old friends singing a cheesy lovesong to each other ... right. Judging by the curious glances and raised eyebrows all around me it had been as subtle as a Pride Parade. Making up some lame excuse, I went to follow the two most important people of my life(s).

"Hey, Dad? If Mom kills you, do I get the car?" I heard Janis yell after me from the buffet table, but I was more afraid of what she would do to Sammy for some reason. She had looked really pissed off.

"What is it Beth ..." I heard Sam ask softly.

"All right," she said and turned towards us in the hall, taking a deep breath. "I'm going to ask you a question now Sam, and I want a clear answer. No swiss-cheesed brain or other bullshit excuse."

"Okay," Sam looked rather anxious.

"Were you and Al a couple in the original timeline!?"

"No!"

"No," we said at the same time. Sam shot me an odd look and I sighed. He had probably expected a different kind of 'no' from me. Because while his had sounded affected and strong, mine had just been matter-of-factly and faint.

"No." Beth looked back and forth between the two of us, her face showing something strange between relief and anger. "Okay, second question." She pinched her nose. "Why the hell not?" She sounded now like she was dealing with two total imbeciles.

It was an interesting question I thought, but I doubted that either of us could answer her. Before Sam could say anything she patted him patronizingly on the shoulder. "Oh sorry, I forgot," she said, "you're a sexually repressed idiot ..."

"Beth!" I protested the insult on my friends behalf. "That's pretty rich coming from someone, who jumped his ass not three hours after having met!" I yelled.

"Al ..." Sam looked pleadingly.

"... and Mr. Macho man over there, for all his bingo-bango-bongo bullshit, is even worse!" Beth ran on unfazed, pointing at me raising her voice too.

"Excuse me!?" Now that hurt, that really hurt. After all that we had been through together, after all we had shared ... and why did my stupid swiss-cheesed brain chose _now_ to think this way?

"Beth ... come on. Al, she didn't mean ..."

"Don't you tell me what I mean or feel, Sam. Just don't. We have been down that road and look were it led us," she scolded him. "So what I can glean from this is, that we're mostly just all in this fucking mess because you two bozos are afraid of cock?!"

This had Sam look rather comically at his privates and open his mouth as if to object, but I had enough. I threw my hands up in the air and turned to leave the building.

 

**Sam**

"Al! Al wait ..." I tried to catch up with him, following him outside into the thunderstorm that was still raging. I saw him entering his car and hurried up to get out of the pouring rain and into the passenger seat myself.

"Yes, she did mean it, Sam," Al said before I could say anything.

"That wasn't a very nice thing to say," I complained.

"Well, she isn't wrong, is she?" he said slowly with a sardonic smile on his face, before his expression turned to anger. "Except for the cock part. That's just ridiculous. I'm not afraid of cock. I have one myself. A very nice big one."

"Yeah, I know," I said and at Al's incredulous look as he turned towards me, I added: "I mean you always liked to tell."

"You know, sometimes I wonder what happened to my uptight choirboy," Al said contempatively and when I didn't immediately respond, he sighed and lit himself a cigarette.

"You're smoking again?" I asked concerned.

"Ah, _there_ he is." Al grinned broadly.

I had to laugh at that.

"They are leftovers from Tina, I think," he explained, studying the cigarette's package.

"You know, sometimes I miss the original Al too," I said, making a face. "You were such a sleezy old man."

What do you mean _were_?" Al objected and then asked curiously: "You liked that?"

"Well, for the most part it was horribly annoying, but yeah, I liked that," I conceded. "As for the upthight choirboy turning into a naughty one, we did share our brains a little, you know," I reminded him.

"Indeed." Al gave me a look that indictatet we share a lot more than that.

"You think that's why ..." I started, but Al cut in: "Well, if brainlinks make you queer better not tell the brass, that turn-everbody-gay-bomb chemical weapon proposal in the mid nineties was already embarrassing enough," he palmed his face.

"What the hell?" I asked baffled.

"Yeah, don't ask. I think it's still classified even." Al made a dismissive hand movement. "I don't think we can put the blame on the implants anyway, I don't have them anymore for a while now."

"No?" I asked and unconsciously touched my head. I hadn't known that.

"They had to get them out asap after your jump from the bar and Ziggy going ca-ca," Al explained. "They were afraid I would die, Sam."

"Well, fuck," I cursed.

Al shook his head and took another puff. "See, that's what I mean. What happened to 'oh, boy'?"

"That's still there, trust me," I affirmed, "but me almost getting you killed warrants something a bit stronger I think."

"You really don't remember anything about the leaps of the last years?" Al asked.

"Not much. I mostly remember the bar, whatever that was supposed to represent. I mean apart from an obviously resting place between and during the leaps, since I no longer had the waiting room. I think it's because I mostly jumped around in the future, which shouldn't even be possible," I ruffled through my wet hair rather frustrated. "That's probably also why Ziggy killed herself," I said sadly. "She couldn't help me anymore."

"The future?" Al looked intrigued.

"Not very far into the future, mind you. I mean, no space stations or something like that but ... at one point it was 2017 or 2018 I think. Donald Trump was president. Now that was weird." Of what my swiss-cheesed brain could still cobble together it had been _really_ weird.

"You've watched Back to the Future too often, kid." Al shook his head again. "Though, the Simpsons had an epsiode about that too, in 2000, if I remember right."

"The Simpsons is still on!?" I asked him astonished, but then something occured to me in the back of my consciousness. "Come to think of it, it was still on _then_. Wow."

"What could you possibly fix in the future?" Al asked puzzled.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem to make much sense at all," I admitted. "But perhaps God-Time-Fate-Whatever could keep me from doing any more damage to the old timeline that way. Maybe it was just punishment for my hubris," I mused.

"What the hell would you need to be punished for?" Al protested. "After all the wrongs you've put right ..."

"Donna would like to have a word with you about that," I cut in. "Hell, if you think Beth was harsh just now ... then again, she could have called me worse stuff still. A sanctimonious hypocrite for one. I mean, I was all about the rules, except when it came to changing my own life. You had every right to be mad about me saving Tom."

"He was your brother." Al said defeated and put the cigarette stump out in the ashtray.

"Yeah, _was_ ," I emphasized. So I saved him from dying in that war only to die in another one later. And Donna did not leave me at the altar, but in the end she did anyway."

"I know what you're trying to say, kid, but that theory doesn't quite work out with me and Beth." Al looked at me sadly. "Or Katie for that matter. I'm sure your sister is happy to have a loving husband instead of being tied to a wife-beating asshole. "And Beth never left me, Sam. It was just that, when we 'celebrated' our 39th wedding anniversary in the looney bin, it became pretty clear that we wouldn't make it to the fortieth."

"I'm so sorry, Al." I didn't know if that would ever be enough. "I just wanted to do the right thing. I thought I owed you."

"You didn't owe me shit, kid," Al protested and I finally plucked up my courage to say: "I love you." It was not like I hadn't said it before.

"I love you too." Al said tenderly but firm. "That's kind of the problem."

"Is it?" I asked as I leaned into his touching my chin. When his lips finally touched mine I felt like _coming home._ Carefully I teased with my tongue warmth flooding my body when he eagerly kissed me back. Al moaned when I drew him close to my body and soon our kissing got more frantic and we grabbed at each others chests, opening up a few buttons of our shirts to be able to touch more skin ... _to be able to touch ..._

The rain was still drumming relentlessly onto the car roof and obscured the windows, when we broke apart to catch some air. I was dazed, Al was panting and didn't look like he thought of this as a problem anymore either.

"Oh, Al ... " I sighed and nestled my head into his neck.

"Are you trying to kill me, kid?" he whispered breathlessly into my ear and stroked my hair.

"Al," I murmured, "I'm fifty. Maybe it's time to stop calling me 'kid'?" I slowly tried to distangle myself from his arms again.

"Uh ..." I blinked at his face and touched him above his lips.

"What?"

"Nosebleed," I pointed out and quickly reached into the glove compartment, looking for some tissue.

"What did I say?" he fake complained, shooting me a smoldering look, when I handed him the package.

I had to resist pointing out that the nosebleed had probably less to do with us making out and more with his spontaneous smoking, when something colorful caught my eye.

"Um, Al?"

"What?"

I held up the pink fuzzy handfuffs I had spotted. There was also a package with condoms, lube with pineapple flavor and a purple strap-on-dildo of rather interesting dimensions in the compartment. "That yours?" I asked.

"The hell, no!" Al looked alarmed.

 _Sure you're not afraid of cock, darling?_ I thought.

"I lent the car to Janis last weekend," it occured to him.

"Well, I guess she isn't calling her boyfriend a sexually repressed idiot anytime soon," I chuckled, prodding the dildo a little and Al gave me that disbelieving look again. Yeah, I thought, choirboy Sam would have been much more flustered than amused by this. Naughty Sam also thought this was rather convenient.

"I'm going to have a serious talk with the young lady," Al huffed.

"Oh, come on, Al, she's twenty-two. That's really old enough to be sexually active," I said. "Unlike some bragging Navy man I know, who says he started at twelve," I added rolling my eyes at him.

"She can be as sexually active as she wants, but not in my car!" Al made plain.

"In her defense it's a very nice car," I said and caressed the luxurious seat covers. "This baby has reclining seats, right?" I asked and started to mess with the buttons on the dash. "Yesss," I exclaimed triumphantly when my seat slipped back.

"Sammy?" A befuddled Al whispered with a dangerous gleam in his eyes, as I stripped of my jeans and boxers of one swift move and speard my legs. I remembered about my first time leaping into a woman and something about the thought of me in wet-look lipstick driving him crazy, so I leaned back and licked my lips. "Need an extra invitation, Admiral?"

 

**Al **

_Did that little bastard just seductively lick his lips_? I stared at a side of my best friend that I had never seen before ... and at something not so little actually. My own cock not needing an extra invitation _at all_ , I urgently pressed my lips back onto Sam's, which he had just so kindly prepared.

They yielded eagerly and Sam drew me onto his lap tearing at my clothes. We wrestled until Sam was on top of me and finally got rid of my pants. He touched me intimately sending shivers of pleasure through my body. I was expecting him to bring our erections together, but instead he cowered down and let his tongue flick over my slit. I couldn't so much as hiss in delight, until he was sucking my cock for real.

 _What the hell?_ Not that I was complaining, because that felt _really_ _good_ , but were did my beautiful repressed farmboy learn this exactly, the tiny part of my brain still working demanded to know? I held onto his head and leaned back, giving into the warm and wet sensation that threatened to fry the rest.

"Alright?" He asked, coming back up for another kiss.

"Yeah," I gasped. Understatment of the century. "Why ..." did you stop? I wanted to ask, but he put a finger on my lips. "Because I don't want you to come ... yet," Sam grinned and kissed me on the nose.

Stealing from Janis' supplies he put a condom on me and generously spread the lube all over it. Licking some of his fingers he made an ew-face "You taste much better then artificial pine-apple flavor," he determined and went for my neck again. Hickeys would be inevitable, I thought and tried to give him better access. He started to shift on my lap, bringin himself in position. When I felt warm sweet tightness surround me I could hear him hiss and exhale.

"Sam," I groaned and tried to hold him steady, "I don't want to hurt you ..."

"Doesn't hurt," he whispered, squeezing down on me. "Feels great." His tongue slowly entered my mouth again in an imitation of the joining of our bodies. It did feel better then great though proper vocabulary seemed to elude me now, as we started to rock into a steady rhythm together. "Al!" he called out aroused as our movements got more and more frantic.

Wow. Sammy was loud during sex, I registered. Wanting to see him come _now,_ I took his cock into my hand and jerked him off while pushing my hips up some more. When I felt him clench and his release making a mess between us it put me over the edge aswell.

"That was ..." Sam started after he had catched his breath again.

"Uh-hu," I uttered incoherently, still overwhelmed by the force of my orgasm.

Only when Sam handed me another tissue to clean myself I noticed, that the storm was finally over and the windows slowly cleared of rainwater.

"I think we better move this elsewhere," Sam said, looking through the windshield up into the opening sky.

"Um, Sammy. I don't think I'm in a shape to drive now," I confessed still feeing dizzy.

Sam smiled and fished for his crumpled shorts on the floor, throwing my own pants at me. He got into the driver seat and started the car. I was not quite sure how we ended up at my apartment and in the shower together, but it didn't matter. It felt just so right, us holding each other close under the spray of the water, our foreheads touching, never wanting to let go.

 

**Sam **

Waking up with my nacked backside snuggled against Al's front was very nice. I turned around to see if he was awake too and going by his yawning and unmistakable hardness against my butt, yeah, he was awake alright

"Morning, darling" he whispered nibbling at my earlobe.

"Morning," I mumbled, pressing back into him. I could get used to this. "Hey! That tickles!" I complained, when he ever so gently traced my sides with his fingers, but he ignored me and started to showere my chest with little kisses slowly making his way down to my own morning wood.

"Al, you don't have to ..." I started but he just grinned at me from beneath the blanket: "But I want to ..." he whispered and went for his objective.

As he licked eagerly, I tried to fend off sensory overlode, but it wouldn't take long for me to come, of which I warned him with my increasing moans of pleasure. "Al! I ..."

"Good?" he asked after I had spilt onto the posh bedding.

"Very good," I confirmed verbally, what had been made pretty obvious otherwise already.

"For a seventy year old virgin you mean?"

Sexually insecure Al was all kinds of adorable. I snorted. "You're hardly a virgin, Al."

"Well, except with this kinda stuff I am," he insisted. "You're definitely _not_ though," he then emphasised, raising an eyebrow at me.

 _Damn,_ I blushed. Time to fess up, I guessed. "No," I conceded, tugging the crumpled blanket around me nervously. "Um, there have been some leaps over the last years ..."

"I thought you didn't remember the leaps?" Al looked suspicious.

"Well, not all of them," I avoided his eyes, not quite sure how to put that delicately, "but I do remember a few. I was thrown into some interesting circles during one of them.

"I think you have turned into a pretty impressive liar, Dr. Beckett," Al remarked. "Interesting circles?"

"Gay clubbing scene, Al."

"And you decided to experiment a little in your old age?" he asked, making an unidentifiable sound afterwards.

"Jealous?" I asked back, the thought had me unduly pleased.

"Yeah," Al nodded. "Then again it's probably good that at least one of us knows what the hell we're doing. So how ..."

"Well, remember how Sammy-Jo happened?" I asked. Leaping into the middle of love-making always was the shit.

"Geez, Sam," he sounded concerned now.

"Nah, it was fine," I assured him. "It taught me some things about myself and, well, Beth was right insofar that I was definitely repressing _some_ stuff. I mean I'm just a simple farmboy from Indiana."

"Simple as in IQ of 267."

"Yeah, that doesn't help either," I said. "Do you remember when I leaped into that gay cadet in 1964?" I asked. " I mean, I was more comfortable than you with the situation but not _that_ comfortable, you know.

"The one where I acted like a homophobic dumbass?" Al asked. "That leap didn't happen in this timeline Sam," he said.

"It didn't?" I asked confused.

"No. I talked with Beena about it. I guess it was not neccessary, because that one was probably more for me to learn something from, and Beth had already set me straight, hah, in that regard."

"So Tommy was just killed this time around, or what?" Now I was upset.

"No, I looked it up," said Al. "Things went down pretty much like when you did leap him," he shrugged.

"Weird," but soothing. "Like I said, when I leaped him I wasn't all that comfortable in his skin, and there was really no reason for it except ... my attraction to both genders was just never really relevant before," I sighed. "I had my first girlfriend at sixteen, which is a perfectly adequate age, no matter what a certain someone has to say about it," I sent Al a gare. "I might be an awkward science nerd but I'm also pretty good looking. Getting girls wasn't as difficult as it could have been. I dated Mary Corbin in college for a year and had other short lived realtionships with women ..."

"For example my wife ..." Al chipped in.

I chose to ignore that. "... then there was Susan from Starbright and after that Donna. The only time I felt greater attraction to a man, besides a minor cruch I had on a math professor in undergrad, there were some complications and I didn't think he would have been interested.

"Huh?" Al looked puzzled.

"I'm talking about _you,_ dummy," I playfully tapped his forehead.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

I kissed him tenderly on the lips and this might have gotten somewhere, but we were rudely disrupted by some grumpy noises from both our tummies, which made us break into peals of laughter.

How romantic. Two hearts beating as one, or more like two stomachs rumbling as one, I thought.

"Damn," Al said, "but we missed out on most of that awesome birthday buffet."

"Too bad," I agreed.

"I'll make us some eggs for breakfast," he got up and put on his bathrobe, which was a nice view. Al doing the cooking in our relationship would probably be for the best, as my cooking skills hadn't improved much since the last timeline.

 

**Beth**

I was a bit nervous when I dialed Al's number, but nobody had been at Sam's and I really needed to apologize to him.

"Al?" I asked rather needlessly when the phone was picked up. Having been married for almost forty years I could tell him from breathing alone.

"Hi Beth," Al answered sounding chipper. "You will be pleased to hear, that I and Sam are no longer sexually repressed idiots."

"Yeah, I figured," I answered, rolling my eyes. "Can I talk to Sam please?"

"Wow. Even now you prefer him over me," he complained mockingly. "Just a moment, I think he is in the bathroom."

I felt some relief that the scene I made at the party hadn't led to disaster but, well, what it was probably ment to led to. The girls seemed to have taken it well enough too. Only Samantha was a bit weirded out and Ellen was just her usual stoic self. Alex and Janis of course thought it was hilarious. This became clear, when they all had looked if I was alright at the party and then tried to go after Al and Sam too, only to be stopped at the door by the thunderstorm and some idea of what was going on.

***

_"Are they doing in the car what I think they're doing?" Ellen asked._

_"Seriously? This isn't the Titanic storage," Alex remarked. "Might get as steamy though."_

_"Geez, Alex, I really didn't need that image in my brain," Samantha complained and went back indoors with baby Mark on her arm._

_"Shit, I think my stuff is still in there," Janis remembered._

_"What stuff?" Ellen looked at her sister._

_"Um. Might prove useful," Janis shrugged and lit herself a cigarette._

_"Ew, you creepy-ass, it's Dad we're talking about here ..."_

  _***_

"Beth?" I was out ripped out of my thoughts by Sam's voice.

"Sam, I'm sorry I ..."

"You don't have to apologize, are you alright?" he asked. "My home wrecking quota is through the roof as it is in this timeline."

You couldn't wreck anything if you tried, I thought. "Al and I have been over for a while now, Sam," I reminded him, "and funny you would say that, because I was really afraid it had been the other way round for a moment.

"No, God no, Beth, I'm sorry if you got the impression ... he was always yours."

"No he was not, Sam. He only became mine again when you leaped to me that evening over forty-five years ago."

"That wasn't me," he said, "well, technically."

Yes. Time paradoxes were funny like that, I thought. Still Sam had given Al to me in the first place and now I just had to give him back.

 

 

***

 


End file.
